All fellows will complete core didactic instruction delivered as courses that are team taught primarily by program faculty.

Principles of Clinical Pharmacology

(course facilitator - Dr. Abdel-Rahman; Year 01) is a general clinical pharmacology course (30 hr total) sponsored by the NIH Clinical Center. This weekly lecture series covers the fundamentals of clinical pharmacology as a translational scientific discipline which spans the continuum of drug discovery through therapeutic use.

Developmental Pharmacology

(course director - Dr. Abdel-Rahman; 12 hr didactic instruction; Year 01) will provide trainees with a comprehensive understanding of the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that contribute to inter-individual variability in the dose-exposure and exposure-response relationships along the continuum of age. The lectures integrate physiology and pharmacology with case-based problem solving examples to illustrate principles relative to age-appropriate individualization of treatment.

Bioinformatics

(course director - Dr. Ye; 10 hr didactic instruction, 8 hr experiential instruction; Year 02) will introduce trainees to the emerging field of translational bioinformatics, where computational and biostatistical methods are integrated to explore genomic data which can define the expression of disease and its response to treatments. This course will cover concepts germane to the field such as GWAS and DNA sequence analysis, SNP and haplotype analysis, next-generation DNA sequencing, meta-analysis of "-omics" (genomics, proteomics, metabolomics) data, expression quantitative trait loci analysis and the generation of data-driven hypothesis. It will also introduce trainees to commonly used bio-computing tools via lecture and hands-on application guided by faculty.

Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics

(course director - Dr. Kearns; 20 hr didactic instruction; Year 01) will provide trainees with a comprehensive, functional understanding of the processes used to quantitate drug disposition (e.g., drug liberation, absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion) and effect (PD). It will also introduce trainees to both classical and population-based approaches to analyze PK/PD data.

Survey in Pharmacogenomics

(course director - Dr. Gaedigk; 17 hr didactic, 18 hr experiential instruction; Year 01) will provide trainees with a conceptual and factual basis regarding the role of pharmacogenomics as a determinant of drug disposition and action. The experiential portion of this course will consist of six guided laboratory experiences (three hours each) intended to provide hands-on training.

Pediatric Drug Development (course director - Dr. Kauffman; 9 hour didactic; Year 02) is an interactive seminar intended to introduce trainees to the multiple aspects of the drug development process which includes drug discovery, pre-clinical testing, human clinical trials and bioethical issues. The format for the course includes interactive didactic presentations, assigned readings and case presentations.

Masters in Clinical Research ProgramTrainees will participate in courses offered by the UMKC Masters programs in Clinical Research and Bioinformatics as well as the Masters in Clinical Research Program at our neighboring partner, University of Kansas Medical Center.